GREAT HECK - Up to 15 people were feared dead last night (NZT) after a high-speed British passenger train collided with a vehicle on the rails and was then hit by a freight train travelling the other way.
Another 150 people were injured.
Passenger rail carriages lay on their sides as emergency workers swarmed over them to rescue people trapped inside the wreckage.
The accident happened just south of Selby in Yorkshire, about 250km north of London.
"We are looking at 15 fatalities at the moment, but I'm sure that will rise," said a police spokesman.
Others reported 60 people trapped inside the wreckage.
Police said a vehicle veered off a road onto the track and was struck by the passenger train travelling south from Newcastle to London's King's Cross. The train was then hit by a freight train travelling in the opposite direction.
It was not known how fast the passenger train was travelling, but it was a high-speed service of the Great North Eastern Railway.
Drama student Janine Edwards, who was on the passenger train, said: "I heard screaming and shouting and the lights went out. I held on to the table in front of me and then there was a huge impact.
"My carriage was on its side. I was lucky, I was still in my seat, clinging to the table. But one lady, who was travelling with her daughter, had been flung into the air and was lying in the next corridor. Her leg was trapped."
Britain's rail network is still recovering from nationwide speed restrictions imposed in October after four people died in a high-speed derailment just north of London. Last night's crash is the country's worst since 31 people, including two New Zealanders, died when two trains collided near Paddington station in London in October 1999.
- AGENCIES
15 feared dead in train chaos
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